St. Aedan's Church

St. Aedan's Church is a Roman Catholic church located on 800 Bergen Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was born in the early 1900s out of the Irish Catholic community which developed to the south of Journal Square. The parish was founded by around 300 Irish trolley conductors and operators, and St. Aedan's Parish was established on 23 June 1912. It was named for Saint Aedan of County Wexford, Ireland, and Roger A. McGinley was the first pastor of St. Aedan's. A parochial school was established in 1913, and the ground for the church broke in 1929; the church was dedicated on 4 October 1931 with 4,000 congregants. Until the 1970s, it served a mostly Irish-American congregation, but more Asian, Caribbean, Hispanic, and African immigration to Jersey City changed the congregation's demographics. In August 2011, St. Aedan's became part of Saint Peter's University and came under the care of the Society of Jesus.